


breathe

by ignitesthestars



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, star wars episode VII: The Last Jedi (2017)
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Post-TLJ, Pre-Relationship, Team as Family, hints of reylo and finnrose if you so choose, quiet moments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 13:56:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13055358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ignitesthestars/pseuds/ignitesthestars
Summary: The Falcon has beds, but for as few people are left of the Resistance, there are still too many of them to fit comfortably. Used to sleeping in tight places, Rey asks Poe to wake her up when it’s her turn to fly and finds a corner to curl up in.It gives her, unintentionally, a good view of Finn’s back. There’s something soothing about being able to trace the lines of it with her eyes; she can still smell the scent of charred flesh on bitter cold air, feel the puff of his breathing getting fainter and fainter as she willed him to live. Seeing him alive now, seeing him up and moving around, it loosens something in her chest that she hadn’t even realised had seized up.





	breathe

The _Falcon_ has beds, but for as few people are left of the Resistance, there are still too many of them to fit comfortably. Used to sleeping in tight places, Rey asks Poe to wake her up when it’s her turn to fly and finds a corner to curl up in.

It gives her, unintentionally, a good view of Finn’s back. There’s something soothing about being able to trace the lines of it with her eyes; she can still smell the scent of charred flesh on bitter cold air, feel the puff of his breathing getting fainter and fainter as she willed him to live. Seeing him alive now, seeing him up and moving around, it loosens something in her chest that she hadn’t even realised had seized up.

This is what it’s like having friends, she supposes. People you care about. Her mind’s eye shudders back for a second to the _snap-hiss_ of a lightsaber slicing Snoke in half, the feeling of fighting back to back with—

Someone who had hurt Finn. Her _friend_. She pulls her knees up close to her chest and rests her chin on them, watching him watch a girl she’s never seen before, but who must mean a lot to him. He hovers over her the same way Rey had hovered over him.

“Who is she?”

He twitches, and by the time he glances back at her she’s grinning a little. It’s strained at the edges, tight and exhausted, but it’s definitely an upward curve.

“Got a girlfriend?” she prods. “Cute girlfriend?”

“Rey!”

“What? She _is_ cute.” She cranes her head around the side of him as if to double check. 

Maybe if he hadn’t hugged her like she was a lifeline, she’d be jealous. But even with everything that’s happened, she doesn’t think there’s a force in the galaxy that could tear away what she and Finn have. They saved each other, in more ways than just one.

 _I have to get back to Jakku_.

From things she hadn’t thought she needed saving from at all.

“I only met her this week.”

“Because you and me’ve known each other for _so_ long.” She reaches out with a toe to prod him. “Normal rules don’t apply anymore, Finn. If they ever did.”

“She’s not my girlfriend. She - she’s Rose.”

He says it like that’s an explanation. Rey turns the weight of a name over in her head, and thinks that it’s close enough. Finn keeps going, but those two words are enough for her to know that Rose is a part of their life now, as indelibly as the connection between the two of them, between Finn and Poe, between--

Some relationships, she’s learning, are measured more in experiences than time.

“Her sister died destroying a Dreadnought and she stunned me when she thought - when I was trying to take the beacon away so you’d be safe, and we tried to stop - to stop—”

Rey knows the sound of a hopeless plan that failed when she hears one ( _you’re nothing_ ) and she bats away her own inner demons to lean forward as well, reaching for him. Her fingers brush his cheek and for a second he closes his eyes, like that simple touch has somehow helped.

She doesn’t entirely understand how it could, but she’s glad it did either way.

“We messed up,” he rasps. “We messed up, Rey, and now so many people are dead. I tried to make up for it, but Rose stopped me, and now she’s hurt too.”

“Like you were, protecting me on Starkiller.”

She can hear the screech of metal, feel the shock and pain of impact. Maybe it’s her hand on his cheek, or maybe it’s just them. This close, his frown is easy to make out.

“That’s different. That - you don’t feel _bad_ about that, do you?”

“‘Course I do. I’d finally found a friend, and you nearly died because of me.”

“Because of Kylo Ren.”

The poison in his voice nearly startles her, but of course Finn hates him. The fact that she can’t find that feeling coiled in her chest anymore is an aberration, one so egregious that she almost thinks about not telling him.

It would be easy not to. Easy to let ben Solo die in the silence of her mind, let the shut door of the _Falcon_ be the end of it.

Easy to not risk her first and best friend looking at her like she’s the monster now. But if there’s one thing the past few days (has it only been days) have taught her, it’s that easy isn’t an option anymore. Not one she can stand taking, at least.

Her head drops, pressing into Finn’s shoulder. He’s warm, and maybe a little startled, but it’s not long before his arms come around her, holding tight.

“I’ve got a lot to tell you,” she mumbles.

“Hey. I’m listening.”


End file.
